Russell Means, to director Michael Mann, had always symbolized the courage and determination of indigenous people fighting for their rights. But before Mann cast Means in his Oscar-winning 1992 movie “The Last of the Mohicans,” he wasn’t sure if the charisma of the famed activist would translate to the big screen.

Means, an Oglala/Lakota Sioux Indian who became an activist for American Indian rights, passed away today at the age of 72 on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Known for being a prominent member of the American Indian Movement and for his leadership when AIM members occupied Wounded Knee, S.D., as a political statement in 1973, Means was also an actor, appearing in such films as “Natural Born Killers” (1994), and lending his voice to the Disney animated movie “Pocahontas” (1995).

But it was Means’s role as Chingachgook in “The Last of the Mohicans” that was his breakthrough into Hollywood. Based on the book by James Fenimore Cooper, the movie grossed more than $75.5 million at the domestic box office, according to the movie site Box Office Mojo.

Speakeasy talked to Mann this afternoon about working with Means on “The Last of the Mohicans.”

What gave you the idea to cast Russell Means in “The Last of the Mohicans”?

He was an early hero of mine politically in the 1960s, and so he was one of the four or five people I wanted to be in touch with when talking about the movie, along with people like Wilma Mankiller [the first female chief of the Cherokee Nation]. But the two most prominent men were Russell Means and [American Indian leader] Dennis Banks… So Russell came to L.A., and we sat and talked for two days, and he read the screenplay and very much wanted to participate in the picture, and so then the next thing was, could he act? And obviously he did a great job. The second thing was, could he do the work? He was [in his fifties] at that time, and he knocked himself into shape in about three and a half weeks and then he was able to do all that work.

Did he share with you any insights about American Indians and American history?

The picture is all about that. Magua [played by actor Wes Studi] plays the function of a villain, but he’s a tragic hero. The picture is thematically about what is the perspective of an indigenous people when you’re facing extinction of one form or another.

What kinds of conversations do you remember having with him on the set?

The conversations are not on the set. They’re about the execution of a scene, and how this particular scene we’re shooting on Tuesday is related to the whole. The big conversations are early on, in terms of his relationship with his son, with his adopted son Hawkeye. ..[The actors] had been living within their culture as it existed in folklore, in tales, in research, in books, but they hadn’t actually been in a place where they could look 360 degrees and see nothing but what their culture would have looked like to their ancestors 200 years ago. We had constructed a complete village, not as a set, but in reality. So it was very moving for Russell, for Dennis Banks, for a lot of people, to actually be in that place that had only existed in myth prior to that point, down to the real crops they would have planted. So in the reconstruction for making a motion picture, it all kind of came alive again. So people came up to me, Russell included, and talked about the impact that had upon them.

What was he like as an actor? What was he like as a presence in front of the camera?

He was not a trained actor. His process was to imbue himself with whatever the significance of that relationship was…Every time there was a take, it was new for Russell. He was determined. He absolutely one of the most determined people I ever met. When he decided he was going to do something, that was it. And that determination also played out in his life as well.

What were your thoughts when you found out he had passed away?

Well, I knew it was coming about a week ago. Because there had been an email exchange with his wife. He wanted to get back and die at Pine Ridge…First of all he was way too young. 72 is young. Way too young to pass away. He’s an iconic person. He’s lived through so much…What this guy stood for, the courage he had, and who they took on, in the 60, 70s and 80s—[American Indian activist Leonard] Peltier is still in prison. It’s a struggle that’s 400 years old. And Russell was fighting that battle every day of his life.

About Speakeasy

Speakeasy is a blog covering media, entertainment, celebrity and the arts. The publication is produced by Barbara Chai and Jonathan Welsh with contributions from the Wall Street Journal staff and others. Write to us at speakeasy@wsj.com or follow us on Twitter at @WSJSpeakeasy or individually @barbarachai.